MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A crisis forced the Memphis Grizzlies into turning away from Dillon Brooks and toward Luke Kennard, and if they can stick with that switch, it might be the answer they need to turn around this first-round playoff series with the Lakers.

But they might not be able to do it. Injury may rob Memphis of yet another critically important role player.

Advertisement

The crisis was existential. One more loss and the Grizzlies’ season is done, a folded house of cards under a heap of disappointment and immaturity. What was once a 17-point lead in the first half of Game 5 was down to one, because the Lakers opened the third quarter with eight consecutive points.

Coach Taylor Jenkins called timeout with 10 minutes, 17 seconds left, and out of it, Brooks, who for any number of reasons, most of them you’ve heard of, is not having a good series, missed a layup. He splashed a 3-pointer but then threw a bad pass and missed an ill-advised 3. Jenkins had seen enough and turned to Kennard at the 8:15 mark – way ahead of when he would normally take Brooks out of the game.

“Where we were at, (D’Angelo) Russell went on some crazy run to start the third quarter, and we knew we had to counter,” Jenkins said. “That was my gut call.”

Kennard’s final stat line from Game 5 was nothing special. He attempted three 3s and made two in 18 minutes. But his mere presence on the floor forced the Lakers out of the defense they’ve run for most of the series and created space in the lane the Grizzlies haven’t had.

With Kennard on the court, Memphis erupted over the final few minutes of the third, closed the quarter with an 18-point lead and won easily 116-99. Desmond Bane scored 33 points and Ja Morant was right behind him with 31 — not all of those can be attributed to Kennard’s increased court time, but this is simple math.

The Lakers don’t guard Brooks when he is on the court because he is shooting 20 of 66 for the series and 8 of 37 from 3. He was 3 of 15 in Game 5. Meanwhile, Kennard is shooting 50 percent on 3-pointers and 52 percent overall in this series.

“Luke is one of the best shooters in the league,” Morant said. “Obviously that opens up a lot of space on the floor and we just play off that.”

Advertisement

Jenkins stayed with Kennard for the start of the fourth quarter but turned back to Brooks with 10:48 left because of another looming crisis. LeBron James set a screen on Kennard and he crashed into him, injuring his left (shooting) shoulder. He didn’t return, and his prognosis for Game 6 is unknown at this point.

“I’m not sure exactly what’s going on right now, but hopefully tomorrow we’ll get some clear answers,” Kennard said. “It’s a little stiff, a little sore right now, but that’s to be expected.”

Kennard said his arm got caught in a bad angle as he tried to get around James. He said he felt a “quick pinch,” and in a spot of good news for him, he said his mobility in the shoulder was better after the game in the locker room than it was immediately after the injury. He said he’ll likely get an MRI Friday before the Grizzlies fly to Los Angeles for Game 6.

Playing Kennard, who was acquired from the Clippers in a three-team trade at the February deadline, would represent a huge departure from the Grizzlies’ original plan. Brooks’ primary responsibility was — and still is — to guard James, but he’s sharing those duties more now than he was at the start of the series.

Brooks created the firestorm by disparaging James in a postgame interview (we don’t need to go over that again), was ejected from Game 3 for punching James under the belt and in Game 4 failed to help on James as he drove in for the layup that sent the game into overtime. Brooks is struggling mightily to knock down the shots the Lakers are daring (begging) him to take.

Jenkins was asked after Game 5 if, had Kennard not been hurt, Brooks would have gone back in the game, and the coach said, “I was just being open-minded.”

“I mean, obviously it was a win-or-go-home situation, just wanted to try different things,” Jenkins said. “Obviously, DB came back in the fourth quarter, and just having Luke out there with Dez, those two guys on the floor together has been really good for us. If Luke doesn’t get that stinger, who knows what happens in the fourth quarter?”

Advertisement

Brooks is a stout defender and is so sturdy that he can body up James on the perimeter, which allows the Grizzlies to use a second defender to double Anthony Davis in the post. Those doubles have been less frequent though, because Russell, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura have — at different points throughout the series — burned Memphis for sagging off them.

Both Xavier Tillman and Jaren Jackson Jr. agreed after Game 5 that they have begun to take more assignments against James. Some of that has been because Brooks has either been ejected or otherwise seen his playing time dip because of the poor shooting.

“I knew that I was going to be the secondary guy on LeBron coming into the playoffs, behind Dillon, I’d have an opportunity to get some chances to guard him,” Tillman told The Athletic. “But as the game goes on and he starts to post up and stuff like that, that’s more so my time to start guarding him simply because I’m just bigger than Dillon is. I have a better chance of stopping him down low.”

If you’re the Grizzlies and you’re trying to think this through — if you can get away with playing a gifted offensive player whom you don’t trust on defense (Kennard) over Brooks, who is essentially the polar opposite — what James has shown through five games offers a path.

James is shooting 16.7 percent from 3-point range in this series and nearly 46 percent from the floor. He has been a monster on the glass (12.4 rebounds per game). The Grizzlies could argue that having Tillman on him — and even giving him space at the 3-point line — makes sense, given their deficiencies on offense when Brooks is on the court. But beware. The third quarter where Brooks was mostly on the bench was James’ best in Game 5, as he made all three of his shots on an otherwise miserable night in which he said he played like “s***” and shot 5 of 17.

But depending on the severity of Kennard’s shoulder injury, it may not be an option.

For Brooks’ part, he said he just needs to “keep shooting” and then next questioned the reporter who asked how he breaks out of this shooting skid. Brooks will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and knows he is both playing for a championship and also for his next job.

Advertisement

Jenkins’ other big move in Game 5 was to bench David Roddy in favor of John Konchar — a switch that isn’t exactly headline material. The Grizzlies’ roster is such that there aren’t many options for rotation/lineup tinkering, even less so now that Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke are lost with injuries.

If Kennard can play in Game 6, it would be a stunner to see Jenkins start him over Brooks. But playing Kennard over Brooks more, and especially down the stretch of a tight game, is one of the few options Jenkins has to flip this series.

“That was definitely not by design,” Jenkins said on turning to Kennard over Brooks. “I just wanted to try something different. Small ball, the points of attack that we’ve been seeing over the course of the series in different spots at the end of quarters, beginning of quarters. That was something I just wanted to try and see, and we’ll evaluate, watch film and see how good it was for us.”

The film will show the switch worked. The MRI will show if it even matters.

 (Photo of Luke Kennard: Joe Murphy / NBAE via Getty Images)